The Ex Games
by Frost.queen
Summary: AU. Sakura and Sasuke used to be a hot item, but their brief affair ended with a highly publicized breakup. Now the two are 'just friends', excluding the occasional flirtation. Full Summary inside. It's a Romantic Comedy to warm a cold heart. DISCONTINUE
1. Chapter 1

**-This is a SasuSaku story. It's prompted by the book "The Ex Games" by Jennifer Echols.**

**Full Summary: When Sakura wins the girls' division of a local snowboarding competition, Sasuke is unimpressed, claiming that Sakura wouldn't have a chance against a guy. Sakura calls Sasuke's bluff and challenges him to a head-to-head boarding contest. Their mutual friends take sides, the girls on Sakura's and the boys on Sasuke's, making an all-out battle of the sexes. This friendly competition is bound to get heated- and they might end up igniting some old flames.**

**Couples : SasuSaku, NaruHina, ShikaIno and others.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor the plots from The Ex Games.**

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****The Ex Games

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**Chapter 1: Seatbelt**

1. A trick in which a snowboarder reaches across the body and grabs the board while getting in the air.

2. What Sakura needs to fasten, because Sasuke is about to take her for a ride.

* * *

At the groan of a door opening, I looked up from my Chemistry notebook. I'd been diagramming molecules so I wouldn't have any homework to actually take home. But as I'd stared at the white paper, it had dissolved into a snowy slalom course. The hydrogen and oxygen atoms had transformed into gates for me to snowboard between.

My red pen had traced my path, curving back and forth, _swish,swish,swish, _down the page. I could almost feel the icy wind on my cheeks and smell the pine trees. I couldn't _wait_ to get out of school and head for the mountain.

Until I saw it was Sasuke coming out of the door of Kurenai-sensei's class and into the hall. At six feet tall, he filled the doorway with his model-perfect looks and cocky attitude. He look down at me with those onyx eyes and smirked.

_Oh no: fuel for the fire._

About a month ago, one of my best friends had hooked up with Sasuke's best friends. Then, a few weeks ago, my other best friend and Sasuke's other best friend had gotten together. It was fate. Sasuke and I were next, right?

Wrong. Everybody in our class remembered that Sasuke and I had been a couple 4 years ago in seventh grade. They gleefully recalled our breakup and the resulting brouhaha. They watched us now for our entertainment value, dying to know whether we'd go out again. Unfortunately for them, they needed to stick to DVDs and Wii to fill up their spare time.

Sasuke and I weren't going to happen. But maybe snowboarding could wait a little longer, after all.

"Hn. Fancy meeting you here, _Kura_." He closed the door behind him, too hard. He must have gotten in trouble for talking with Naruto, and Kurenai-sensei had sent him out in the hall. _Must be Naruto sabotaging him._

Join the club. From my seat against the cement block wall of our high school's science wing, I gazed up at him – way,_way_ up, because I was on the floor – and tried my best to glare. The first time he called me _Kura, _years ago, I found out that it was a brand name for this cat food company. Not exactly flattering.

But I couldn't let him know I was flattered that he'd taken the time to research for a word to insult me with. Because that would make me seem desperate.

"I mean, Sakura." He sounded like he didn't know he just insulted me. Sasuke Uchiha, the infamous playboy in our school, who occasionally was featured in teen heart-throb magazines as the heir to the Uchiha Corp fortune. He would date girls – for a few dates, until dumping them.

I knew his pattern all too well. When I'd first moved to Snowfall, I had been one of those girls. He'd made me feel like a princess for a whole month. The fantasy culminated with one deep kiss shared in the back row of the movie theatre with half of our English class watching us. It didn't end well, though.

"Fancy meeting _you_ here, Ex." He gave me a smirk of sexy confidence, dropped his backpack, and sank to the floor beside me.

"So, what do you think of Naruto and Hinata?" My heart had absolutely no reason to skip a beat. He was _not_ asking me out. He was asking me my opinion of my friend Hinata and his friend Naruto as a couple. Of course, Naruto and Hinata were a legitimate topic of gossip.

"Oh, they'll get along great until they discuss where to go on a date. Knowing Naruto, he'll give way to a lady like Hinata and insist they'll go where she wants to go. And Hinata is too shy and insist they'll go where _he _wants to go. They'll end up sitting in her driveway all night." I could have sworn Sasuke chuckled. Sasuke Uchiha does _not_ chuckle.

"And what's up with the lazy ass and beauty queen?"

"You mean Shikamaru and Ino?" I raised an amused brow. "HAH! They are just an accident." Oh shit. I didn't just say that, did I? Damn him. He's going to spill this to Shikamaru and he's going to spill it to Ino. I didn't want that. I slid my arm around him.

"But, that's just between you and me. I know how good you are at keeping secrets." I cooed in his ear.

He pursed his lips and gazed at me. _Score two for me._ I just threw our history back at his face when I found out he was keeping me in the dark when he let the whole class know his secret. Not that I was bitter. But instead of jabbing back at me, he slipped his arm around me too.

I was wearing a couple of T-shirts, both of which had ridden up a little in the back. I shivered when I felt the heat of his fingers on my bare skin, above the waistband of my jeans. My cheeks turned as pink as my hair.

"Now, Kura," He reprimanded me. "Valentine's Day is a week from tomorrow. We don't want to ruin that special day for Naruto and Hinata or Shikamaru and Ino. We should put aside our differences for the sake of the kids."

I couldn't help bursting into an unladylike laughter. I expected him to remove his hand from my hip at my outburst, but he just pulled me closer. He was toying with me. I _knew_ it. But I sure enjoyed it.

"Four years is a long time for us to be separated," He said. "We've both had a chance to think about what we really want from our relationship." This was true. Over the four years since we'd been together, I'd come to a heartbreaking realization that no boy in my school was as hot as Sasuke, not much fun, and nobody was nearly as much of an _ass._

For instance, he'd generated pink-crotch comments about me as I passed his table in the lunchroom yesterday. I mean, seriously? A crotch that's _pink_?! But I know if he didn't made that comment, he was surely responsible for it. So I played along.

"Are you saying you didn't sign the papers, so our divorce was never finalized?"

"I'm saying maybe we should call off the court proceedings and try a reconciliation." He watched me, waiting for me to say something. I had absolutely froze in my mind. Was it just me, or was he trying to ask me out? No freaking way. I knew how Sasuke Uchiha worked. If flirting is what you call work at least. And I won't let the same thing happen to me again. So he _had _been listening to everyone in class prodding him to ask me out.

Good timing though. I had just broken up with Sai last week because he was just too emotionless. I caressed his hand which he had placed on my thigh without me knowing it.

"I'll mention it to my lawyer." Ha! Take that! He eyed me uneasily, and I already knew what he was thinking. That I haven't fallen to his feet and he was just taken aback.

* * *

"What are you doing this winter break?" Winter break was next week. It seemed cruel to lock us up in school the entire winter. They let us out for a week every February, since the base might or might not start to melt by spring break in April.

"I'm boarding with my brother today," I said, counting my fingers. "Tomorrow I'm boarding with Hinata. And on Sunday, I'm boarding with the cheerleaders. On Monday, I'm boar-"

"Basically, anyone who will board with you." Sasuke rolled his eyes in annoyance. I nodded at him.

"Oh, and I'm entering a huge competition on Tuesday."

"Really, now? I thought you were afraid of heights?" So he'd been listening to me after all. My friends knew I had broken my leg when I was twelve. That actually led to my family's move here at Snowfall. My dad's a doctor, and he got so interested in my physical rehab that he and my mom decided to open up a health club.

Though, my own leg had healed by the time we moved, I was still afraid to snowboard. But I managed when they made me go with my little brother, Takashi, to keep him from killing himself on the mountain. Takashi was a big part of the reason I'd gotten pretty good. And that's how I became the world's only snowboarder with the ability to land a frontside 900 in the half-pipe _and _with a crippling fear of heights. Not a good combination, if you ask me.

"This competition's different," I said. "For once, there are no big air events or slopestyle or anything that involves a jump."

"Hn."

"Anyway, those are my plans so far." What I meant was, I was free the whole entire week then. Fuck, I sounded desperate!

"Are you going to the Poser concert on Valentine's day?" I seem to forget that he still had his arm around me. He's only toying with me. I can repeat this mantra a million times.

"That's everybody's million-dollar question, isn't it?" I said. "Or rather, a seventy-two dollar question. I don't wanna pass up the opportunity to see Poser, but tickets are so expensive." Sasuke nodded.

"Especially if you want to buy two because you want to ask somebody to go with you." I gaped at him. He stared at me with those dark pool orbs. Was he laughing at me inside? We both were startled as the door burst open. Kurenai-sensei glowered down at us with her hands on her hips.

"Miss Haruno, Mr Uchiha. When I send you into the hall for talking, you do not _talk_ in the _hall_!"

"_Oh_." Sasuke said in his innocent tone which he used to flirt with other girls. He bent his head so that Kurenai-sensei couldn't see his face, and smirked at me.

Saved by the bell! Kurenai-sensei got caught in the current of students pouring out of her classroom and down the hall.

Ino shoved their way out of the room with Hinata on her tail and glanced around the crowded hall until they saw me against the wall on the floor. Clearly, they were dying to know whether I'd survived being sent out in the hall with my ex. Both of them focused on the space between me and Sasuke. I looked down in confusion, wondering what they were staring at.

Sasuke was holding my hand. I tried to pull my hand away but he squeezed it even tighter. I turned to him with my eyes wide. What in the world was he thinking? After the insults Sasuke and I had thrown each other in public over the years, we'd be the laughing stock of the school if we really fell for each other.

He wouldn't look at me, though I pulled hard to free myself from his grasp. He just squeezed my hand and smirked up at the gathering crowd like he didn't care who saw us. Which, was _everyone_.

Naruto strutted out of the classroom and slid an arm around Hinata. Naruto better take care of her. She was the kindest person I know and Naruto was… Well, the opposite. I guess opposites attract. But I think they deserve each other. But even Naruto had a comment as he casually glanced down at Sasuke and me and did a double take on our hands.

"That's something you don't see every day," He stated, earning more stares from passerbys. "Usually by this time, Teme will be going around the lab looking for something to throw at Sakura-chan."

Sasuke glared at the blonde-hair boy. "We didn't do any experiments today, just diagrammed molecules. Nothing to throw, dobe." By now, A two-deep crowd of our classmates had filed out of class and joined the circle. They peeked over one another's shoulders to see what Sasuke and I were up to this time. Then Shikamaru walked lazily and somehow, the crowd managed to split into two to make path for him. He accidentally whacked into Ino so hard, he would have knocked her off her feet if he hadn't grabbed her at the same time.

"I knew it…" He said with a yawn, referring to our hands. Seriously, if Ino wasn't there, I would have whacked him at the head for yawning so much.

"Ooooh." Said the crowd, shifting closer around us. I wanted to scream that they were supposed to be _going home_ for winter break! If Ino, Hinata, Naruto and Shikamaru weren't in the front row, Sasuke and I would have been overrun by the whole class like zombies.

"I was just shaking Sakura's hand, wishing her luck in the snowboarding competition on Tuesday." He stood up, still gripping my hand, pulling me up with him.

"See you tonight." Naruto mouthed at Hinata's ear, making her flush. Shikamaru turned to Sasuke.

"I'll fill you in on Kurenai-sensei said after you got sent out." Sasuke didn't really need to be _filled in_. He doesn't give a damn what Kurenai-sensei said in the last ten minutes of class before winter break. Sasuke _finally_ let go of my hand. "See you around, Kura."

Shikamaru and Sasuke made their way through the crowd, shoving some obnoxious gawking boys who elbowed them back. While Naruto was still busy hugging Hinata, who was turning purple.

"Naruto, first of all, you don't hug someone that long when it's time for goodbyes. Secondly, LET GO OF HINATA! YOU'RE CHOKING HER!" He cowered in fear at my tone before letting go of Hinata. He turned to Hinata with a mischievous grin.

"Give me gum."

"No." Naruto pouted. Ino and I backed away when Naruto cornered Hinata at the lockers behind. He shoved both his hands in her pockets of her jeans. She started giggling and I couldn't help but roll my eyes.

"I don't h-have any g-gum!" Hinata squealed, still giggling. "N-Naruto-kun!" She finally shoved him away. Naruto jogged down the hall to catch up with Sasuke and Shikamaru, holding the paper-wrapped bubblegum aloft triumphantly. "T-That was my last p-piece…" She pouted as well. I never would have admitted that Naruto's gum theft made me jealous. Sasuke would _never _steal gum from any girl.

* * *

"Oh my god, DID SASUKE ASK YOU OUT? It sounded like he was asking you out, but we couldn't quite tell. Kurenai-sensei finally came to check on you because the whole first row got up from their desks and pressed their ears to the door." Ino blabbed on while we were walking down the hall.

"Well, I thought he w- WHAT?! You all were listening?!" I could feel blood rushing to my face. What about those comments I said about our divorce?!

"Ehehe.." Both of them chuckled nervously when I glared at them. And then I finally found out was going on here… I folded my arms across my chest and glared harder at them. "You both are trying to set me and Sasuke up, AREN'T YOU?!" Ino stared right back at me while Hinata, the weakest link, glanced nervously at Ino. _Busted._

"Come on now," I stomped my foot. "Even you all aren't going to the Poser concert with Naruto and Shikamaru. It's too expensive."

"Sasuke Uchiha has more money than God." I rolled my eyes at her and turned to Hinata. "You really want me to go out with Sasuke after I told you he made that pink-crotch comment about me?" Hinata was all about people being respectful to one another. I don't blame her… She's the heir (like Sasuke) to the Hyuuga Corp.

"T-That _did_ s-sound d-disrespectful," she admitted. "Are y-you sure h-he didn't m-mean it in a f-friendly way?" Incredible. Even Hinata's sense of chivalry and honor was crushed under the juggernaut called Wouldn't It Be Cute/Ironic If Sasuke and Sakura Dated Again.

"What if he did ask you out, Forehead?" Ino called out, bouncing excitedly.

"It doesn't matter!" I wanted to believe that Sasuke had changed in the past four years. But I remembered his dis four years ago as freshly as if it was yesterday. I'm afraid he'll hurt me again. "Stop trying to throw us together!" Seriously, this topic was getting on my nerves. Especially about the pink-crotch comment. So what is my hair is pink? It's natural and I love it.

"Okay." Both of them said in unison.

But I was left with the nagging feeling, despite that promise, that they were not through playing Cupid with me and Sasuke.

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**That was long! So how was it?! Need your comments please :D  
I took a long time writing this chapter. Ugh! The ending here was a little rushed, as you can see.**

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**Please Review and I'll give you a Snow Cookie! ;D**

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	2. Chapter 2

**Wow. I didn't expect this story to be a huge hit. Thanks guys! ;D. Please continue to support me! This is for you guys!**

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The Ex Games

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**Chapter 2: Fakie**

1. A trick performed in the stance opposite the one natural for the snowboarder.

2. A trick performed by Sasuke to Sakura.

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I know what you're thinking. Girlfriend has fallen out of the stupid tree and bonked her head against every branch on the way down. If Sasuke had such beautiful dark eyes and a low, rumbly voice and a perfect ass (did I mention his ass?) then why would I hold a grudge for something he did in the seventh grade?

Well, there was no mortification like seventh-grade mortification- just like my mom said there was no hunger like pregnancy hunger. At that age you already worried that every step you took and every word out of your mouth would send your so-called 'friends' into fits of laughter, because they hadn't quite outgrown the cruelty peculiar to sixth graders.

If something truly mortifying happened to you on top of this, your heart began to shrink. And if, you're the new girl in school who wanted to desperately fit in, you would still be mad. That was what happened to me. It made me worry that these strangers would hear about my broken leg and would feel sorry for me when viewed as the crippled girl.

And if one afternoon I'd take my dog for a walk and slip into an icy crevice, the only evidence is my poor Doofus the Irish setter.

Instead, the opposite happened. Seconds after I handed my enrollment slip to the teacher and snuck at the back of the class into an empty chair, Sasuke picked up his books and moved from his table beside Naruto to the desk beside mine.

I remembered every detail of the first five minutes with him. Even back then, Sasuke was so much more handsome than the other boys. He looked vaguely familiar in I way I couldn't quite place.

But what struck me most was how comfortable he seemed with me. Some boys would not even make eye contact because they weren't interested in girls yet and played way too much Nintendo. _Or_, they _were_ interested in girls and expressed this by making comments about their boobs. Unlike those boys, Sasuke talked to me as if we were friends.

"_Hey." I looked at him._

"_Sasuke Uchiha." He stuck out his hand and I looked at it. My cheeks burned up. God, it's hot! "Nice to meet you…"_

"_Sakura Haruno." I took his hand shyly and gave it a shake. I wonder why he was smirking… Was there something on my face?_

I knew it. I was the vulnerable new girl. I never had a chance with this boy. But damn, was I wrong. I went on three 'dates' with Sasuke with no macking so far. The girls in my class would squeal every time they saw me, probably wondering if our fourth date would be sealed with a kiss.

On that fourth date, Mile-High Pie was packed with teenagers wearing hip winter sports gear if they didn't ski or board. I sat in a booth with Sasuke, surrounded by decades of teen graffiti layered on the walls.

**Konan loves Pein**

**Gaara + Mitsuki**

And that's what Sasuke and I were, but with a special tint: SasuxSaku. He always had his hand around me. And I will sometimes feel Naruto elbowing him. After a while, we moved with the teenage crowd to the movie theatre.

A tall, beautiful blonde named Ino , obviously the prima donna of the class, was having a public argument with two different boys who liked her. There was a lot of high drama before the film started, middle schoolers yelling at accusations at each other, like a Disney Channel version of COPS, and Ino was comfortable at the center of it.

I thought the attention had finally moved away from Sasuke and me, and we were safe from everyone's eyes in the back row. The second the lights dimmed, he put his arm around me again. We weren't wearing anything thick so the heat and weight of his arm imprinted themselves on my shoulders. By the first love scene in the movie, he was leaning toward me.

I figured he wouldn't really kiss me. He would want to, mean to. But I couldn't be possibly lucky enough for this to happen for real. Either the fire alarm would sound in the cinema, or the roof would collapse under the weight of the snow.

And then he kissed me. His arm tightened around my shoulders, his other hand cradled my cheek, and his warm lips touched mine. We kissed for a long time, and I didn't make him stop. If Sasuke was like other boys, I would have known he'd just wanted to brag this to his friends afterward.

My first kiss. Obviously not his. He knew what he was doing.

I blinked away tears thinking about this now. Such a perfect night, the sweetest reward after two years of embarrassment at my previous school and excruciating pain from my broken leg 24/7.

I'm feeling sorry for myself, I couldn't help crying for the poor little thirteen-year-old me at the moment Sasuke kissed me.

A girl named Hinata sat into a seat beside me and whispered that I should come with her and Ino. This surprised me, because I'd never heard Hinata's voice before–she was a quiet little librarian in class. But I really needed to pee. I had needed to pee since the movie began. In seventh grade, you do not admit to boys that you need to pee, so this was the perfect excuse to relieve myself while retaining my image as a peeless goddess.

When I came out of the stall, Ino was peeking under the other doors to make sure the bathroom was empty. Hinata stood in the center of the tiled room with her arms folded. Not angrily or anything, but more like protecting herself. I felt a flash of panic.

Were they going to welcome a new girl with a swirly? Or Sasuke was on the list of boyfriends Ino was balancing, and now she wanted payback.

"_You're Sakura Haruno right?" Ino asked. Oh no. I was right. I nodded my head, refusing to speak. But Ino didn't look bent on revenge. For the first time all month, she was silent, waiting, deferring to Hinata. Hinata bit her inner lip and looked down._

By junior year, Hinata had let her dark tresses flowed behind her. But back in seventh grade, she was still pulling it off her face with combs and clips with little monkey faces on them. The monkey faces laughed at me as she dropped the bomb.

"_S-Sakura-chan… Sasuke-kun is f-from a f-famously r-rich family…" Now I remember.. I've seen Sasuke with his family in TV commercials last year. That's why he looked so familiar! _

"_E-Earlier this y-year, he a-and N-"_

"_He and Naruto had argued about whether Sasuke's family money was the only reason why he got any girl he wanted." Ino cut her off. I still don't get why I'd been dragged here and what they were talking about._

"_So a month ago, when Kakashi-sensei told the whole English class that a new girl was starting school, Sasuke bet Naruto he could get a date with the girl that weekend, sight unseen, without her knowing anything about his money." I felt my heart break into a million pieces.. So that girl – the vulnerable girl – was… me. _

"_To make it fair," Ino continued as I hung my head down. "Sasuke and Naruto swore everyone in class to secrecy." I was not, as I thought I was, a cool teen. I was not Sasuke's dream girl. I was a bet._

"_Hinata and I were feeling guilty, so we thought you should know. Now that Sasuke had kissed you, the bet has gone too far." I'm pretty sure, they thought I'd respond to this info by hugging them and crying in the bathroom. _

I smirked even though I was at the losing end. Ino and Hinata did _not _expect me to flounce back into the theatre and scream at Sasuke for what he'd done to me.

In the flickering light of the movie, I knew he was horrified.

_After he'd gaped at me and I'd held my breath for a few moments, Naruto prompted him, "Well?"_

_Sasuke blinked and said in his faux innocent voice. "I don't know what you're talking about, Kura. I mean, Sakura." The theatre burst into laughter at the damn cat food brand name. I stomped out. Hinata and Ino followed me, which sealed our friendship forever._

And here we still were. I'll always be wondering what Sasuke would be doing at the other side of the room, with another girl, or the other end of the bus. In other words, I was addicted to Sasuke. Sasuke had dumped Karin – another fangirl of his – after three dates, which was one more date than he usually lasted in a relationship.

He'd flirted with me in class for the past four years, but he'd never sat down with me in the hall and treated me to the low rumbly voice and hinted about the Poser concert. But I hoped he'd wait until after Tuesday, because he was distracting me enough already. I had more important things to worry about than Sasuke. Tuesday, I had an appointment with a snowboard.

* * *

I inhaled through my nose and felt my lungs fill with air. My blood spread the life-giving oxygen throughout my body. I exhaled through my mouth and felt gravity pull the energy from my heart down through my legs, through my boots and snowboard, through the snow, to the rocks below. I was one with the mountain.

"Good luck, Sakura!" Ino squealed. I opened my eyes to find her in the crowd of spectators behind the ropes of one side of the snowy course. She was bouncing and my eye finally caught her. Hinata put a hand on her shoulder to hold her down.

"Shhh. S-Sakura-chan's d-doing one of h-her yoga t-things. L-Let her c-concentrate." No chance of that now. Bouncing friends tended to break my concentration. At least my brother, Takashi, and his friends weren't around. I'd checked in on them between my events, and all four of them were kicking butt in the fifteen-and-under boys' competition held on another curse at the same time as mine.

If they'd been here, they wouldn't have squealed like Ino. They would have made up a rap with beatboxing and very embarrassing pushing-up-the-house hand movements.

_It's Sakura  
What?  
She's a monsta  
What?  
On the ski slope  
What?  
Give it up, folks  
What?  
Got the board slide  
What?  
Got the frontside  
What?  
Got the mad skillz  
What?  
For a sick ride  
What?_

It was sad that I could predict their lyrics. I boarded with them _way_ too much.

The warning buzzer sounded. In a few seconds, I would begin my first-ever official competition. I had run hundreds of casual races against friends and challenged my brother to comps in the half-pipe, but nothing like this. It was so strange to be a competitor and not a spectator.

I lowered my goggles, and slid my board forward to the starting line. Deep breath. One with the mountain. And then I was flying down the slalom course, staying tight and tucking in, dodging around the gates as fast as possible. I knew my time would be good because I was in the _zone_. My body went automatic, feeling exactly what to do when.

Then I hit my usual snag. For most people, the hardest part of this course was the moguls. For me, it was the straightway past Sasuke's house. His parent's mansion had an enormous frontyard and a daunting frontgate to scare away paparazzi and beggars. But the backyard bordered the slopes so the Uchihas could sit on their deck and watch the skiers. Every time I boarded past, I would glance over at the deck. But Sasuke was never there.

Until now. I squinted my eyes through my goggles. Wait, I can't let Sasuke distract me! It probably wasn't even him but his father. Or was it? I'd seen Mr Uchiha at my parents' health club. He does _not_ have a chicken-ass hairstyle unlike… Oh shit.

Maybe Sasuke wouldn't recognize me from a distance. Though my pink hair and hot-pink snowboard made me hard to miss. Okay, maybe he might recognize me, but he hadn't meant to _watch_ me. He was out on the deck to fetch a few more logs for the fire inside. The fact that he'd come outside at exactly the moment I took my turn in the competition was just a big coincidence. An almost impossible coincidence if you ask me.

I was one with the mountain. I can't let Sasuke distract me. My body worked perfectly. I skimmed around the gates, excited to see the finish line.

I made a wide circle to slow down and skidded to a stop. Almost before the final curtain of snow I'd kicked up had fallen out of the sky, my eyes widened.

"Holy shit," I whispered to myself. I was in the lead! Three chicks waited for their turns, but I was so far ahead of them after my half-pipe score. God, I didn't expect to win. I had expected at most placings. I glanced up the slope to see if Sasuke was still there, but he was gone.

And then I heard the cheers and applause of the spectators for me, with Ino and Hinata's screams ringing above the noise. Wow. Hinata was screaming too. I unlatched my boots from my board and hiked over the sidelines to meet the girls. Besides, if I won this competition, I would be in big trouble. And Sasuke Uchiha would be the least of my worries.

-

"So, what's next?" Ino asked the instant she plopped down beside me on the seat of the bus. "Are you registering tomorow for that amateur comp in Aspen a couple of weeks from now?" I'd been afraid of this. After the competition, Hinata had walked back to her parents' hotel. The ten-minute bus ride was my only chance to convince Ino to drop this idea of pushing me into more competitions, before she drags Hinata onto the bandwagon with her.

I was so thrilled when Takashi won third place in his boys' division. And I was so estactic when I found out I had **WON THE WHOLE SHEBANG**! It still hadn't quite sunk in. And now it never would. Because the second I realized I had won, I started worrying about what came now.

"We already checked the Aspen contest," I reminded her. "It requires a big air event."

"Well, Hinata and I thought that after you won the competition today, which by the way we knew you would, you'd realize how good you are and start entering everything in sight."

"You and Hinata thought wrong."

"Let me put in this way," Ino said, putting her index finger up. "What am I doing after high school?"

"Modelling?"

"Right. And what is Hinata doing?" Where's she going with _this_..

"Take over the Hyuuga corp. Or maybe Neji Hyuuga would do it." Neji Hyuuga was the top student of the batch before us. He was having some conflicts with his family. They say that the Hyuugas were made of two types; the main and the branch. Neji was part of the branch family while Hinata was part of the main. I heard that Neji has a very strong hatred for poor Hinata.

"Okay... Maybe. So what are you doing?"

"...Boarding.." I muttered. I should have known it would lead to this!

"Unless you're planning on living with your parents forever, how are you going to board all day when you haven't even gone pro? And how are you going pro if you don't enter any competitions to get there?" She was right of course. I'd known that I would have to face this reality sooner or later. I wanted it to be later, after this year's snow season was over.

"The prize for winning is lessons with Anko Mitarashi, right?"

"Right." I felt myself grinning all over again at the thought. Anko Mitarashi held a silver medal in the Olympics, an X Games title, and two world championships in women's snowboarding. The waiting list for lessons with her was three years long. And the cost was out of my league. But now I'd won this very prize; ten lessons with her.

"This is your opportunity to impress someone who can pull the strings for you," She said. "I've heard of three Snowfall girls Anko Mitarashi coached who've gone pro. You're not going to tell her, 'No thanks, I don't go off cliffs. Don't bother coaching me in slopestyle or big air, either, because I don't board off anything higher than my own head.'" How _dare _she mock me! She folded her arms in her thick coat. She was right again. Fear of heights would be a little hard to explain to a snowboarding coach. I just didn't wanna hear it.

The bus squealed to a stop, I'd reached my street. "We'll continue this discussion tonight."

"Give it a rest, would you, Ino? I appreciate what you're doing, I really do. But Hinata invited us over tonight so we can celebrate my win. At least let me enjoy the thrill of victory, okay? We can talk about how it's ruined my life tomorrow." As I stood, I saw Takashi crouched in the seat behind us. _He was eavesdropping_! When we locked eyes, emerald with emerald, and he realized he was busted, he dashed past me down the aisle as best as he could in snowboarding boots and disappeared through the door.

"Oh God, there's been a security breach," I gasped to Ino. "See you tonight." I chased after Takashi.

"Hey!" I hollered. "James Bond! What's the big idea?" He stopped on the slick sidewalk and whirled around to face me.

"You're suppose to take me with you," he snarled. "That's what siblings do for each other! You're suppose to make it as a pro snowboarder, then reach back and help me do the same." I stared blankly at him, waiting for him to acknowledge the irony of _him_ scolding _me_ when I was older than him. I moved closer so I could stare down my nose on him. This didn't work. He was almost as tall as me. He'd shot up a few inches lately and was about to catch up to me. And he was standing above me on th slope sidewalk.

His emerald eyes were shaped like mine. He had a scattering of freckles unlike me. And he has dark red hair. He actually wasn't bad-looking. Eventually he might even land his crush, Shikamaru's sister, Yumi. My hair was pink. "You're supposed to have fear of heights for a little while after you break your leg. You're not supposed to have it _four years_ after you start snowboarding. And you definitely can't let it ruin your chance of impressing Anko Mitarashi. I'm not going to let you." He spun on the ice and stomped up the sidewalk again, dragging his board.

"What are you going to do, _tell_ on me because I won a snowboarding contest?"

"That's exactly what I'm going to do," He called over his shoulder.

Shit. I don't want my parents butting into my business. Especially not about this. "You had better not," I shouted after him. "You hear me, Haruno?! I will tell Shikamaru's sister you slept with a stuffed bunny rabbit until you were in middle school, so help me God!" Takashi dropped his board, slid down to me and clamped his hand over my mouth. "SHHHHHH! Ears was very special!" I smirked under his hand.

"Then don't tell them." I bent his fingers backward to make him let me go.

"OW!" He barked, rubbing his fingers. This was another thing that Takashi and I had in common; a bad temper. Push us too far and we'd snap. I was doing yoga to work on this, but he wasn't. Josh bent to snag his board and jogged up the slippery slope. He wanted to beat me home.

"Takashi Haruno!" I shouted, chasing him again. Unfortunately, I tripped over my board and lost my grip. It zipped back down the sidewalk, past two houses, and crashed into a mailbox. At least I knew I'd done a good job of waxing it last night. I trotted after it and called pitifully to Takashi as I picked it up.

"Little bro, I love you so much!" Way up the hill, he disappeared inside our house.


	3. Chapter 3

**Woah! This story was really a huge hit! I wanna thank all those who have reviewed for this story, and the story 'A Fallen Angel, Sakura Haruno'.  
Please read the other story if you have time.. It's the Naruto version of Chrono Crusade, but semi-AU.**

**So, guys, thanks again for sticking by me, cause I'm a newbie ;p!**

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The Ex Games

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**Chapter 3: 1440**

1. A quadruple spin, nearly impossible to pull off

2. Sakura's fear of heights, nearly impossible to hide.

* * *

When I finally made it into the mud room, panting with exertion and hot under five layers of clothing, Takashi had only pulled off his boots. He sat on the bench and playfully grabbed at Doofus's snout. He hadn't spilled anything to Mom yet. Whew.

I extracted myself from my parka. "You are, seriously, my favorite brother." Takashi scratched Doofus's ears and seemed to be telling the dog rather than me, "I'm your _only_ brother. And you bent my fingers and hurt them." He pouted.

"I'll kiss your fingers and make them better," I inched closer to him. "Kissy kissy." I threatened him. That got him up pretty quickly. He kicked off the rest of his snow clothes and skidded into the kitchen in his long johns and socks. I stripped down to my long johns, too – tripped over Doofus – and scrambled after Takashi.

Mom was giving him a big hug, wearing her yoga leotard from work, holding the large kitchen knife she'd just been chopping dinner with. If they weren't my family, I might have been frightened.

"Well, how'd you do?" She asked, pulling back to look him in the face.

"I won third place in the junior boys' division!" He exclaimed with wide innocent eyes like an adorable woodland creature in a Disney cartoon. I wondered what he was up to. I felt like slapping his face. But then I would be forced to explain to my mom why I'd slapped an innocent woodland creature.

"That's great, honey!" She wrapped him in another hug. Mom had pink hair, same as me, but I could see into my brother more than she could. He was facing me now, giving me a wink and a thumbs-up. Ugh!

Mom eased out of the hug, but still kept her hands on his shoulders. "Why are you acting like a parody of yourself?" She asked him. Takashi blinked at her.

"That's just the function of being a teenager. I feel so empty inside. What's for dinner?" He slipped out of her grasp and wandered to the refrigerator. Mom turned to me, and the big grin she'd worn for Takashi sagged a little. She didn't expect much from my first snowboard competition.

"I did okay." I said. I already knew she was going to ask the same thing. Maybe she'd take my side, whatever Takashi was about to tell her. She knew how hard my injury had been on me.

"Actually..." I said slowly. "I won."

"Oh my God, that's great! You won!" With her pink plaited braid hair bouncing as she jumped up and down, she reminded me of Ino–except for, you know, the knife. "That means you're better at snowboarding than I thought! You've finally gotten over your fear of heights! And–wait a minute– why didn't you want to tell me?" Abruptly, she stopped jumping. "What's the prize?"

The little demon walked over with a stalk of celery sticking out of his mouth. "Lessons with Anko Mitarashi."

"Anko Mitarashi!" Mom gasped. "Sakura! I am old and out of it, as you're so fond of telling me, but even_ I_ know who Anko Mitarashi is. That's some prize!"

"But guess what?" Takashi went on, removing the celery from his mouth so he could rub this in as thoroughly as possible. "Sakura-chan's been avoiding comps all this time because they have jumps in them. Her fear of heights is so bad that Anko-san would think she's a beginner." That brat! He only calls me '-chan' when our parents were around. What a way to act polite.

"Really?" Mom's other eyebrow went up.

"She won't set foot on the gondola. She won't even get on the regular ski lifts that go too high off the ground. She sticks to low, short lifts, which means she's been boarding for four years and never even see half the mountain." Takashi rambled on.

"That half of the mountain is nothing but jumps and cliffs. I don't _want_ to see it." I insisted.

"This is bullshit!" Takashi shouted over me. Forget about acting polite. "Mom! She's supposed to take me with her. Like Elijah and Hannah Teter. Like Molly and Mason Aguirre."

"Who?" Mom shouted back.

"One sibling goes pro and helps the other along," Takashi gestured dramatically with the celery. "You could have _two_ pro snowboarders in the family. We would buy you a new minivan. You want a new minivan, don't you?" Was it just me, or did he just threatened _our_ mom?

"Tempting," Mom said drily. "Well, Sakura? You've said you want to become a pro snowboarder, but your father and I assumed that you wouldn't be able to do that. We thought eventually you'd give up, go to college, and major in other subjects you're good at." It was a good thing she didn't list all the subjects I'm good at. I had A's in so many subjects, the list is like a toilet paper rolling down the street.

"But if you're good enough to win a contest in Snowfall," Mom went on, "and you have a foot in the door with Anko Mitarashi, you have as good a chance of going pro as anybody. Do you want help getting over your fear of heights? We could take you to a doctor–"

"Yeah, that's just what I need, to miss my days snowboarding so I can sit in some doctor's office and go through more _rehab_." My fear of doctors might have been worse than my fear of heights. But mom ranted on.

"Or a counsellor perhaps?"

"Absolutely not."

"Don't let her get away with this." Takashi pointed at mom with the celery. "She is a foolish, foolish young girl."

"Foolish?!" I screamed. I have enough of his nonsense, "I'll show you what foolish is!" I was about to pounce on him, but mom held me back.

"Lay off her, would you, Takashi? Remember, she's your older sister. We can't force her onto anything she won't want. If you want, go get your own lessons with Anko Mitarashi. I'm going to call your father and tell him of the good news." She padded out of the kitchen. Then there was a screech and a dog yelp. She must've tripped over Doofus. "I'm okay!" She called. I smirked at my otouto.

"You owe me." I said to him.

"I don't owe you anything."

"Oh, but you do. You told on me for winning a contest, you ass! You owe me. And you know what I want in return." My smirk grew wider as he scowled at me.

"Not the pants." I nodded gravely.

"Give me your pants."

* * *

These were no magical traveling pants. They're only my little brother's broken-in jeans that fit me perfectly and that he almost never let me wear. I'd even tried on the identical size and style at the store, but they weren't the same.

He knew how much I loved them, so he sabotaged them just to irk me. Once, he tore a hole in the butt so my panties would show. This might have been an accident, but I was pretty sure the edges had been cut. I got my revenge on him by patching up the hole with a little red heart.

This time, I checked the behind just in case. I saw that he'd written 'BOY TOY' in big block letters across the butt in permanent ink, right next to the heart patch. That little freak. I just had to wear the jeans tonight. I'll take that chance.

For winning the competition, Ino and Hinata were throwing me a 'party' at Hinata's parents' hotel. What this means was, Ino would be sucking faces with Shikamaru and Hinata would be doing something with Naruto. I don't even know what that bad boy would do to her. And, I would keep my onion dip company. No one would notice my BOY TOY butt.

* * *

After dinner, I rode the bus back to town, waved to the doorman of the hotel entrance and made my way downstairs into the kitchen adjoining the banquet room.

A beautiful cake frosted with 'Congratulations, Sakura!' waited on the counter. This was starting to get creepy from the silence and everything.

"Hello?" It echoed through the room._ Creepy_. I noticed another door to my right. It was already opened, but I couldn't see through the darkness of it. Curiosity got the better of me. I strutted over to the door and...

"SURPRISE!" I turned pale. Judging from the natural air smell, I could tell that we were outside. Behind the crowd, I could make up swimming pools. So we were at the swimming pool area then? In the first row were Ino, Shikamaru, Naruto, Hinata and.. Sasuke. They all stared at me, and I only stared back. I was rooted to the ground, frozen.

"Sakura?! SAKURA!" Ino screamed at my ear, pulling me back into this cold-hearted world that didn't give a damn to people who were vulnerable to heart attacks.

"What?!" I screamed back.

"I'm so happy!"

"Why? Cause your surprise party didn't kill me?!" Ino knew how much I hated surprises, and clearly this was no exception.

"No, silly! We thought you weren't going to come. You're late!" She scolded me. Before I could answer, she pulled me towards the crowd who already started to party. At the corner of my eye, I saw Naruto and a group of his guy friends walked behind me. I turned to them and I saw something in their eyes. Something evil, sinister, and most importantly, something–

"Get her!" My eyes widened when they charged towards me, and lifted me up.

"W-Wait! What are you guys doing?!" I screamed, trying to get off. Naruto carried me by the waist, throwing me over his shoulder while the others either stopped me from kicking or punching Naruto by grabbing my feet or wrists. We were headed to the pool, and it dawned to me.

"Oh, _fuck_ no!" I screamed. I saw Sasuke smirking, standing beside Ino and Hinata who were just giggling at us.

"Oh, fuck yes." Naruto said.

"CANON-BALL!" The next thing I knew, I made contact with the cold, _cold _water. I resurfaced and saw Naruto and the guys laughing their heads off, even Sasuke was chuckling! Now my BOY TOY jeans were wet. I looked down at myself. My two-layered shirts stuck to my skin, my hair was in a mess, and I think I'm getting a cold.

"Hey," I heard the guys stop laughing, but I continued staring down at myself. The water was about my waist-level. "Is she crying?" What? I'm not crying... Oh. I must have sniffed that's why they thought I was crying. Well, it wouldn't hurt to play along right? I brought my right hand to wipe my face, like I was crying.

"Oh shit. Naruto, you're so dead." Kiba said. I could tell Naruto was starting to panic. He rushed over to the edge, I could see his shoes. "Oh no. S-Sakura-chan.. Please don't cry! I-It was a joke! Don't cry! H-Hinata w-will kill me." I walked in the water to the edge where he was standing, still not looking up. I smirked the whole time.

"Come on, I'll help you up." Naruto said, and I saw his hand stretched out in front of me. I wiped my face again, so that it'll be more convincing and sobbed. I took his hand and suddenly pulled him in.

He made a loud 'splash' on the water, and I burst out laughing. Apparently, the others started laughing too. I faced poor Naruto in the water, and I found myself laughing my ass off, that I couldn't even properly open my eyes.

"Sakura-chan! You tricked me!" Naruto said from behind me.

Wait. Wasn't he suppose to be... I whipped my head around, and saw Naruto standing over the edge of the pool. If he was there... then who did I...? I whipped my head around again.

"S-Sasuke?!" Sasuke stood in the water as well, staring at me blankly. I bet he was waiting for an apology. Fat chance.

"You look pretty good when you're all soaked up." I commented. He walked towards me in the water.

"Hn. So are you." Smirk.

"Just so you know, I thought you were Naruto, (Naruto: HEY!) so I don't owe you anything." Hah! Take that! I lifted myself up, glared at Naruto and his group of friends which consisted of Kiba, Shino, Lee, Choji and some other guys from my class, and walked to Hinata.

"Is there any place I can dry off?"

"T-The s-sauna.. F-First door to t-the l-left." Naruto hugged her from behind, and I glared at him. "Thanks. Keep your boy in place, Hinata. Or else I'll do it. The _hard_ way." I heard Naruto gulped before I stormed off to the heavenly place.

I stripped off my clothes, put on the bikini and flip-flops I'd brought and had dropped it near the cake, and entered the hot, steamy sauna.

I slid onto a bench at the corner. I could feel the heat taking its toll. This sauna really did wonders. I could daydream all night in here, but I would end up as cooked as a lobster when I leave this place. I pulled my hair to hang at one side of my shoulders. I was alone, so I was kind of comfortable relaxing here and just let my guard down for a while. I closed my eyes. How relaxing..

Suddenly, the sauna door squeaked open. I gave a groan of irritation and refused to open my eyes when I had just closed them. It's my time of relaxation and I will not, I repeat, not let _anyone_ disturb it!

I felt the bench compressed a little from beside me. Now why would someone sit beside me when the whole place was currently empty? Why choose the seat beside mine? The thoughts made me open my eyes to the person at my side. My eyes widened.

"Sasuke! I mean, Ex!"

"Sakura! I mean, Kura!" He turned to me as though he was as shocked to see me as I was to him. Of course, he wasn't at all.

"W-What are you doing here?!" I screamed at him.

"Drying off. If I remembered correctly, _you_ were the _one_ who pulled me in the water."

"I already told you I thou–"

"You have a body like a rock." I gaped. Okay... I didn't expect that. Sasuke was built. Oh yes, with rock-hard abs. His family had a membership at my parents' health club, and sometimes he came in to lift weights. I would watch him through the surveillance cameras behind the reception desk. Though, he never worked out with his shirt off ( and I bet it has got to do with his fangirls). There wasn't an ounce of fat on him.

Suddenly he was less of a superhero and more of a boy my age, caught off guard in the sauna. I like this Sasuke better.

"What kind of rock?" I asked casually. "Granite is rough. Mica is shiny and flaky." Couldn't help it. I love playing our game so much.

"I need a closer look." I flushed. I should have expected that. He slid an arm around my waist and pulled me closer. I tried not to flinch. I told myself – he's just the school's biggest flirt. This doesn't mean anything.

"The smooth white stone that statues are carved from," He brushed his fingers across my skin, "Marble."

"Marble? With black veins? Sounds attractive." I hope he gets my sarcasm, because I'm not rolling my eyes for him. He smirked his sexy smirk again.

"Statues don't talk."

"Yeah, I wasn't buying this sexy rock metaphor anyway." His eyebrows went up and his face opened into that expression _who, me?, _even as his pointer finger placed itself on my belly button.

"Hn. I'm trying to be nice."

"I can tell." Something needed to be done about this belly button issue. I didn't push his hand away because.. well.. I wanted it there. But I couldn't just leave it there without acknowledging it either. That would show weakness, telling this man over here that he could do whatever he wanted with me and I would sit there and take it. Instead, I put my hand on top of his and pressed gently, like I approved.

I think I surprised him, seeing his eyes widen. After a while of mentally smiling, he spoke up.

"So, you and I are alone. We might as well make the best of it." As if I weren't hot enough already, I felt the heat rising through me, burning every inch of my skin.

"I love saunas... Don't you?" He purred, leaning closer to my face. "The heat." _Oh no, I'm going to faint!_ "The steam." My heart knocked so hard against my chest that I could hardly stand it. Sasuke Uchiha was going to kiss me, and I was going to let him.

"What a bunch of bull," I breathed, his face still an inch close to mine. "Haven't you learnt anything in seventh grade?"

"One way to find out." He slipped his hand around the back of my neck, and then–

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**Cliffy! Muahahahahhahaha.  
**

**Ouch. My fingers are sore! I just wanna thank all reviewers and those who suscribed for this story again.  
Please continue supporting me, AND please read my other stories as well! Thanks!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Yay! The 4th Chapter! In case you haven't read my profile, I mentioned that I'll be laying low in my other story; A Fallen Angel, Sakura Haruno for a while. It's tough writing two multi-chaptered story at once, you know. And, guys, my story Sakura's Confession, is only two-shots. I don't understand why people are putting it on alert. **

**If you want me to continue that story, then I'll consider. ;D Right now, Here's the fourth chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor the Ex Games.**

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The Ex Games

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**Chapter4: Invert**

1. A handstand on the lip of the half-pipe course

2. Sakura turning the tables on Sasuke.

* * *

–I hesitated.

I _never_ hesitated. Hesitating in the slalom could cost me the race. Hesitating in the half-pipe could earn me a concussion. Hesitating on a jump could get me killed–and since I did have a tendency to hesitate there, I did not go off jumps.

And I knew better than to hesitate with Sasuke. That would show weakness, and he would swoop in and take advantage of me. Better to keep him off guard if I could.

Yet here we were, inches away from each other in the hot shadowy sauna, breathing hard, looking into each other's eyes, with my hand on his chest to keep him from coming any closer. He glanced at my lips, then focused on my eyes again.

I was terrified of messing this up, which was exactly why I held him off. I _wanted _to believe that he was unsure and vulnerable like me.

"What's up?" It was a very sharp _What's up, _with the hint of impatience.

"Uh, I don't know," I stammered. "I just don't get a good vibe about this."

"You don't get a good _vibe_?" Although Sasuke controlled his emotions carefully, I could tell he was mad. This frightened me a little. I held the honor of being the one person who could make cool, collected Sasuke lose his temper.

I wanted to be honest with him and give him a good reason for this, so I wouldn't hurt his feelings.

"Well, for starters, from some of the things you said in the hall on Friday, I was thinking you might ask me to the Poser concert, but you haven't said another word about it." I watched him carefully as I slowly said this. He watched me too, his onyx eyes giving away nothing but anger.

I swallowed, "Hinata invited you here for my victory party. I saw you out on your deck during the competition, so I know you remembered it was going on. But you haven't asked me about the competition either."

His lips parted. I watched his soft lips (at least I remembered them from seventh grade as soft) and waited for him to explain himself. But after a moment he closed his mouth again, and his dark eyes glinted harder.

I had desperately wanted to be wrong about Sasuke. I wished he honestly liked me. But his silence and his anger were convincing me otherwise. That made _me_ angry. And when I got angry, I was anything but silent.

"You've pretty much ignored me for the past four years, except to insult me or to throw something at me. Then suddenly you want to make out just when our friends get together? You don't act like you're very fond of me. You act like I'm convenient." I took a deep breath before continuing.

"You would have made out with any chick you happened upon the sauna, from the hotel maid to the lady in room 3B. I'm not sure I _do _want to end our trial separation. We have irreconcilable differences." By the time I got all of this out, I was shouting at him. I'd known I was angry at him, but I hadn't realized I'd been storing up _that_ much resentment for four years.

Apparently, neither had he. His hand suddenly tensed on my tummy, and I suppressed the urge to say_ oof_. Sasuke and I had been pressing into each other on the bench, our thighs touching. Our heads were coming closer together with every word we uttered.

If someone had interrupted us just then (which they wouldn't, because we would hear the hall door squeak first), they would think we were about to kiss. They would never understand how much tension rode on every word as Sasuke looked into my eyes and the following words slid out of his mouth and straight into my heart like pieces of glass:

"You have a lot of freaking nerve." He sat back against the wooden wall, sliding his hand off my tummy and his thigh out from under my hand.

Clearly I couldn't read Sasuke as well as I'd thought. I hadn't wanted to make him angry if he really did care about me. I'd only wanted him to get his hands off me if I didn't mean anything to him. Now that it appeared I_ did _mean something, and I'd hurt his feelings, my goal now was to get his hands back _on_ me.

"I'm not trying to make you mad," I said quickly. "I'm not even saying I'm right. This just seems very sudden, and I wanted to talk about it with you a little mo-"

"Forget it, Sakura." His skin glowed with sweat in the low light of the sauna, and his dark hair stuck to his forehead in wet black wisps. He breathed hard like the football team had just given him a good workout. Or like _I_ had. And he looked like I'd slapped him.

But even without the hurt expression on his handsome face, I would have known I'd seriously wounded him because he called me _Sakura _instead of _Kura_.

He went on, "I can't believe you would say something like that to me." He folded his big arms on his bare chest. "I can't believe you would be that much of a bitch to _anyone_."

Usually the thing I'll do then was to make a snappy comeback and stomp out of the sauna, never to return. I got called the B-word a lot, undeservedly in my opinion, just because I had pink hair and I said what I thought, perhaps a tad too loudly.

But all I could do was sit there on the bench, staring at Sasuke with my mouth open and tears in my eyes. I couldn't get over the feeling of seeing him for the first time tonight as younger and vulnerable, more like me.

It hurt that I had hurt him. It hurt more that he had hurt me back.

Outside the sauna, the hall door squealed open. Someone was coming.

"Great," I breathed. Hinata or Ino had invited Sasuke over here tonight because he'd held my hand in the hall and she'd thought there was more to come. Even once I explained to Ino that we officially hated each other now and that nothing happened between us, Sasuke and I would not live down getting caught together in the sauna. All of my friends would tease me about Sasuke even more, and I would _never_ be able to get him off my mind.

Strangely, Sasuke didn't seem the least bit concerned about anyone catching us and teasing us in class forevermore. He still stared at me like I'd slapped him. Okay, I've slapped him a lot in class over the years. But he never gave me this look before.

The sauna door swung open. "_There _you are," Ino exclaimed at me with her fists on her hips. Her eyes slid to Sasuke.

Naruto appeared over her shoulder. "And there _you_ are!" he called to Sasuke. His eyes slid to me.

The rest crowded at the doorway, too. All of them now wore bathing suits, which meant they'd intended to join us in the sauna. Suddenly it was way too hot and I couldn't breathe.

"God it's like a _sauna_ in here,"

"I was just leaving." Sasuke and I said at the same time. Too late I realized that we were pushing through our friends in the door way at the same time too. We couldn't have acted more guilty.

I reached the hallway free and clear. Something big padded behind me–Sasuke, I assumed- but I didn't look back. I burst through the squealing door, slipped into the women's locker room, and rushed under the cold shower with my bikini still on. Maybe if I stood there long enough, my feelings for the Uchiha would wash away, along with the regret that we hadn't kissed in the sauna.

The cold water bouncing off my skull only gave me a headache. I'd rejected Sasuke, yes. But the more I thought about it, the more his reaction seemed completely uncalled for. I'd been called bitch before, but never by Sasuke. In fact, he has never insulted anyone–besides Naruto– before.

I turned off the water and pushed through the door on the opposite side of the locker room, into the cold night. I dashed for the heated pool, jumping in without looking first to see who I was sharing it with.

Of course, Sasuke sat alone on the submerged stairs with his elbows behind him on the wall, watching me as I come up for air. Everyone else must've been inside. He just stared at me, frowning.

"Congratulations to you!" The voices of the others sang from behind the moving door. Naruto held it open for Hinata, who paraded out with the cake, and Ino, who carried paper plates and forks and napkins.

Hinata's dark hair had completely straightened, must've been the heat from the sauna. Ino had carefully pinned up her long blond hair to keep it from getting wet in the pool.

"Thank you all so much." I said, meaning it. Naruto, Kiba, Lee and Choji made a dash to the pool, which really got wavy when Choji jumped in.

"You're w-welcome.." Hinata said, teeth chattering as she set down the cake at the edge of the pool. Ino set down the plates too. They wadded into the pool, cut the cake from there, and passed around big slices. White cake with white icing, a pure sugar rush – not something I normally would have included in my diet,but exactly what I needed when the whole incident with Sasuke had gotten me down.

I was about to take my first bite, when Sasuke spoke up to me in his normal voice, I knew something evil was coming. "So, Sakura. What was your time on the slalom?"

"A minute seventeen." I told him, stuffing the next bite of cake in my mouth while watching him warily. He was just staring at me. Sasuke wasn't really much of a sweet-tooth anyway.

"That's funny," he said. "Didn't you come in first in the girls' division? Because that's three seconds slower than the third-place time for the boys' division in your age group."

Everyone in the pool looked at me, expecting a rebuttal. For once, I didn't have one. Or rather, I didn't want one. Because I almost gagged out the cake stuck in my throat.

He looked at me straight and said, "I just think that unless you compete with everyone, it's not really a competition." I had almost wanted to shout at him when Ino interrupted me.

"That's ridiculous. Girls and boys compete separately in almost every sport. You don't have girls on your football team."

"That's because girls would suck!" Naruto offered. Sasuke waded back across the pool so they could bump fists. As he passed, the movement of his big body splashed water on my cake. I slid my plate onto the pool deck and opened my mouth to lay into him with the insult he deserved. But this time, Hinata decided to speak.

"B-Basic physics. The a-average boy is b-bigger than the average g-girl. G-Girls don't p-play football with b-boys b-because they'd get c-crushed. G-Girls have s-slower times than b-boys in the slalom b-because t-they're not as h-heavy. You s-should have seen Sakura-chan's 900 in the half-pipe. Not a single boy did a 900 today, not even the guy who came in first in the oldest boys' division." Feeling proud, Hinata didn't manage to stutter out the last part.

"That's because he's not that good." Sasuke countered. "_I_ could beat that guy."

"Besides," Lee spoke up. "This was a local competition, You never know who'll show up for those. It would be different if she stepped up to a higher level. The men's Olympics are an event. The women's Olympics are a bathroom break."

"They are not!" I gasped. This was getting ugly if even Lee, usually a gentlemen, was making light of my win.

"The three of you really mean Sakura didn't accomplish anything today? You weren't even there to watch her!" _Sasuke was, _I thought. He was there on his deck. He'd made note of the slalom many times. Now he cut his eyes at me, letting me know that this had flashed through his mind too.

"We didn't have to see her," he said. "Any snowboarder knows this about the sport. Women aren't anything compared with men. Sakura won lessons with Anko Mitarashi, right? Pit Anko Mitarashi and Shaun White. He'd crush her." All the guys then created a range of Anko Mitarashi slap-downs with every male snowboarder they could think of.

I saw Ino gaping at Shikamaru, the laziest of all of them, when he offers suggestions when Naruto and the others ran out of ideas.

I was angry now, truly angry. I'd worked hard to win that competition, and it _did_ mean something. I slogged through the warm water and cold air, stopping right in front of the devil, my tummy only inches away from his knees.

"Sasuke, you really think you could've beaten the first-place guy today if only you've bothered entering the competition?"

"Hn." He replied with a smirk, meaning a yes. For once, I found a smirk on my own face.

"Let's do it, then." I reached forward and poked his chest with two fingers. "You and me, on the slopes, head-to-head, the slalom and half-pipe. I will kick" _Poke_. "Your." _Poke_. "Ass."

"Ooooh," the crowd that I didn't manage to notice said behind us. And I could have sworn Ino and Hinata had joined in.

"You asked for it." Sasuke said. I did _not_ ask for this.

"Hey hey! Want to make it interesting?!" Naruto yelled and everyone turned their heads to him. "Let's do this thing on Saturday. After Teme here wins, the girls treat the guys to the Poser concert that night."

"You mean when Sakura wins, the guys treat the girls," Ino corrected him. "That sounds fair. And you have to treat the other girls in English class, those who don't have dates!"

"It's _not_ fair." Shikamaru protested with a loud yawn. He looked at all of us with one eye open while laying beside Sasuke, his legs submerged in the water. "After Sasuke wins you'll just say that conditions were different when Sakura came down, and that's what made her slower."

"Or it _stopped_ snowing," Naruto said.

"Or the wind was harder," Kiba said after.

"Or the wind was _softer_," Naruto mocked. "Girls will whine about anything."

"Fine!" Hinata shouted, obviously agitated. Everybody's jaw dropped. Hinata never spoke this loudly, much less broke in. "Instead of a slalom where they come down one at a time, they'll come down together, like boardercross." For once, she didn't stutter. Her face was so determined that I don't think this is the Hinata I knew. I glanced at Naruto, he was obviously thinking the same thing.

"It's still not fair," Shikamaru said again. "No matter how high Sasuke here goes, you'll say, 'But Sakura landed a 900!'" This. Was. Really. Annoying. Ino splashed some water on the lazy-ass before speaking out.

"Leave it to me. I'll find three impartial judges. Even _you_ wouldn't be able to complain." She glared at Shikamaru before leaving the pool. "In the meantime, we'd have enough of you boys and your sexist attitudes. Come on, Sakura, Hinata."

I was stunned. Whether the girls treated the boys to the Poser concert, or the boys treated the girls, we'd been paired off. Did this mean Sasuke and I had... a date? Dazed, I moved past him up the stairs following Hinata and Ino, but Sasuke caught me by the wrist.

"We need a tiebreaker," He said, loudly enough for everyone to hear, but looking only at me. "Hn. I want to make sure I win fair and square. We'll add a third event. _Big Air_."

"Done," Ino said quickly. "We'll bury you. Come on, Sakura!"

No. Nononono! This can't be happening! He.. He knew! He _knows_! Didn't he?! He knows that I have a fear of heights! Ino was pulling me by the wrist – good thing. I could break down any moment now. I stole one more glance back at Sasuke. Maybe he hadn't meant to set me up to fail. Maybe he'd momentarily forgotten.

But no, he turned around on the steps and looked straight at me, smirking. Now I know, he knew exactly what he'd done.

* * *

**TBC.**

**Haha! I knew all of you would've thought Naruto or someone would interrupt them. So Cliche right? Well, Sasuke was such an ass here. But there's a reason to it! ;D Find out more in the next chapter! Meanwhile, review pleaseeee! I need to know your opinions.**

**Well, you guys wanna know why I had updated a day late? Please don't kill me too, I apologize.  
It because, I've been reading forums on Naruto Romance. And it seems that NaruSasu.. I don't wanna complete that sentence!**

**They say NaruSasu has the most fics. But I think it's SasuSaku. Check the pages  
**


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